Safe place for online transactions

Thursday

Aug 10, 2017 at 3:23 PMAug 10, 2017 at 3:23 PM

By Max Sullivan msullivan@seacoastonline.com

HAMPTON — Town police are now among the hundreds of agencies in the United States whose station is designated as a safe meeting place for users of OfferUp, an online sales company similar to Craigslist.

The Hampton Police Department was contacted by OfferUp this summer about becoming one of about 700 other departments across the country to post a green sign provided by the company in its parking lot that reads “meetup space.”

The department joins Portsmouth and Manchester police, who also began posting an OfferUp sign in their parking lot after being contacted by the company.

OfferUp recently made headlines for being used by criminals to commit crimes like robberies at what victims believe will be a safe sale meet-up. Hampton Deputy Police Chief David Hobbs said his department is glad to help users of the app by providing a safe space to complete their transactions. The OfferUp meet-up sign is in view of a surveillance camera that overlooks the parking lot.

“We thought it was a good idea to provide that safe place for people to complete their online transactions. It’s just really a simple solution,” said Hobbs. “Criminal activity, I think it’s evolved over the years, and I think criminals find more different ways to try to target different people.”

Seacoast law enforcement officials said online sales activity has been central to many crimes related to theft, fraud and violence. Hobbs said his department frequently receives reports of such crimes, one currently being investigated that took place last week.

York, Maine, police Sgt. Brian Curtin said his department also receives reports of internet crimes that involve listings on Craigslist, and he said residents have requested to use the York police station as a meet-up space. Also common in York, he said, are crimes in which someone pays to rent a vacation home in York and then arrives in town to find the home does not exist.

Portsmouth Police Chief Robert Merner said his department received its sign from OfferUp several months ago. The department previously announced to residents they could use the police station for meeting to complete transactions that began on Craigslist.

Merner said drug crises like the one currently plaguing New Hampshire are often factors that lead to an increase in crimes like robberies, including those that start online. Many times items sold online are stolen goods, he said. He said he also saw crime rise as a result of an opioid crisis on the West Coast when he was assistant chief in the Seattle Police Department.

Merner has been involved in high-profile internet crime investigations, including in the 2009 Craigslist murder case that ended with the arrest of suspect Philip Markoff and the 2016 murder of a 40-year-old woman in Seattle who met her killer online.

Merner said people who deal in online transactions should always keep their safety in mind by letting people know where they are and who they are meeting. He said the woman who was murdered in 2016 told people she was going to a Seattle Mariners game with her date, John Robert Charlton, and that helped investigators find and arrest Charlton.

“Make sure someone knows where you’re going and who you’re with,” Merner said. “These two major tragedies, online meet-ups, ended up with these beautiful young women being murdered.”